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Historical Address 

delivered at tne 

INAUGURATION of 
HERBERT McCOMB MOORE 

as President of 

Lake Forest University 
November 4, 1921 




©y JAMES G: K. McCLURE 

President of ^^cCormick Tneological Seminary 



Lake Forest College Bulletin No. 17 

Published monthly by authority of the Board of 
Trustees of Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, Illinois 

Entered as second class matter, April 18, 1921, at 
the Post Office at Lake Forest, Illinois, under the 
Act of August 24, 1912. Accepted for mailing at 
special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, 
Act of October 3, 1917. Authorized May 6, 1921 






Over one of the gateways of Harvard University is a 
tablet on which are inscribed the reasons why Harvard was 
originated. One of the reasons is that a godly ministry of 
the Gospel might be perpetuated. That reason had come 
across the Atlantic from the beginnings of Oxford and Cam- 
bridge Universities in England. It was later to appear in 
the hearts of those who started Yale. Still later, as the star 
of empire wended its way to the west, it was to appear in 
Illinois. About the year 1853, earnest Presbyterians in 
Chicago felt that there should be a theological seminary 
of their denominational type somewhere in the vicinity of 
the city. The Northwest was developing rapidly. Other 
needs, commercial and social, were receiving attention. Re- 
ligious needs should not be slighted. Efforts to plant a Sem- 
inary at Galena did not appeal to Chicago men. In 1855, 
an offer by a man of Cincinnati to give ^40,000 to endow a 
Presbyterian college near Chicago stimulated thought into 
active effort. Accordingly investigation was made for a 
site. South, west and north the land was examined. Lake 
Forest, beautiful, with its woods, ravines and bluff, suf- 
ficiently near and sufficiently far, was chosen. Then, Feb. 
28, 1856, the articles of incorporation of the Lake Forest 
Association were drawn up. Their preamble read : "Encour- 
aged by the offer of a benevolent individual to make a large 
donation for the purpose of founding an institution of 
learning of a high order, to be located somewhere between 
the city of Chicago and Waukegan, on the shore of Lake 
Michigan," the subscribers agreed to aid in such enterprise 
by providing necessary amounts for the institution of learn- 
ing and for other institutions to be associated with it on 
the same general basis. 

The original project was to purchase at Lake Forest '/" 

1300 acres from those who had small holdings, "50 being 
set apart for the institutions of learning, 30 for the college, 
10 for the academy and 10 for a female seminary," the re- 
mainder to be sold for the benefit of the association or to be 
assigned for park purposes. In order to obtain the desired 
1300 acres, it became necessary to buy adjoining lots. 
2300 acres all told were thus bought, the price generally 



being $25 an acre, though in some cases $100 an acre was 
paid. 

Then landscape gardeners, animated by the ambition 
to make Lake Forest a place of rare attractiveness, laid out 
Lake Forest's winding streets. Soon bridges began to ap- 
pear, and homes to be erected. All was shaping for the in- 
stitutions of learning. The last wild deer was seen along 
its principal street in 1859, though prairie chickens contin- 
ued on the edges of Lake Forest until toward 1878. 

But, propitious as the future seemed, delay ensued. The 
benevolent individual with his $40,000 offer, turned out tc 
be a whiskey distiller, who had made the offer in a spirit 
of penance, and who found himself unable to carry out 
his offer. The high-minded Presbyterians were somewhat 
disgusted with the whole transaction, and enthusiasm 
waned. However, Sylvester Lind, a Chicago Scotchman, 
came forward and offered $100,000 for theological and other 
education, on condition that the Association raise $100,000 
for building and improvements. Thereupon a charter was 
secured from the State Legislature, incorporating "The 
Lind University," Feb. 13, 1857. 

The prospect was most cheering. The affairs of the As- 
sociation were in admirable condition. Lands were being 
sold and all sorts of developing plans were in mind. But 
the financial panic of 1858 came. It crippled Mr. Lind, so 
that he could not carry out his promise, nor were others in 
Chicago able to provide generous gifts, and still in 1858 
the Academy started, and in 1869 Ferry Hall, and in 1876 
the College, the Rev. Robert W. Patterson, Aug. 10, 1875, 
becoming the President of "Lake Forest University," as 
the title had been changed to be, Feb. 16, 1865. Since that 
time over 4,000 students have matriculated in the Academy, 
over 4200 in Ferry Hall, and over 2500 in the College. 

The origin of Lake Forest University as a general an- 
ticipation and as a definite fact was religious. The whole 
project was born in hearts devoted to the will of God. The 
procedures of forming the Lake Forest Association were 
held in the Second Presbyterian Church, Chicago, and were 
attended by earnest prayer. The appeal to the subscribers 
was largely on the religious ground. The persons who came 
here to plant home? were outstandingly religious. 



■^ 



When the product of the Association appeared, the 
Academy was the headquarters of the religious life of the 
community until, years later, a church building was erect- 
ed. Ferry Hall, named from the Rev. Wm. M. Ferry, of 
Fairhaven, Michigan, whose bequest established Ferry Hall 
was intended to crown intellectual training with spiritual 
grace. The College started with high purposes of contribut- 
ing to the religious welfare of the Northwest, its bell sum- 
moning the entire Lake Forest community to Sunday wor- 
ship until 1887. The raison d'etre of this institution is re- 
ligious. 

Lake Forest has had in its administrative and teaching 
forces many characters of outstanding worth. Coming as 
I did into connection with Lake Forest in 1881, and enter- 
ing immediately into close relationship to all its life, I have 
known and had touch with every one of the heads of the 
Academy, of Ferry Hall and of the College, and not only 
the heads have I known but I have also known the men and 
women who as friends and supporters have carried the 
responsibility of this institution from the very beginning. 
That responsibility has required much skill, devotion and 
patience. Starting as it did, when the financial affairs of 
Chicago and of the nation were seriously embarrassed, it 
started without the provision of a sufficient endowment. 
Two groups — they might be called parties so distinct and 
opposed were they — existed at the outset, and continued to 
exist for many years; one group believed that nothing 
should be done in initiating the college movement until an 
endowment was secured adequate to the necessary expense 
account. The other group believed that the College should 
be set in operation in the expectation that its annual needs 
would be provided, and that little by little an endowment 
would be built up. Each group had its own view of trusting 
God in the matter ; what was trust to one was presumption 
to the other. The opinions of the second group prevailed. 
If the attitude of the first group had dominated, it is very 
doubtful if the college would have been born. Suffice it to 
say that, though collegiate education requires much money 
to make it answer to its ends, sufficient money has been ob- 
tained to meet the annual expenditures, and besides an en- 
dowment has been gradually acquired of so worthy an 



amount as to place Lake Forest on a foundation that is sure 
and potential. This endowment has some distinguishing 
provisions, as for instance the Bross Fund, a Fund which 
is broad, large and stimulating, and which is bound as time 
goes on to make contributions to scholarship that will com- 
mand the attention of the leading minds and the leading in- 
stitutions of the world. 

Inasmuch as I have been so intimately associated with 
the life of the University in its different departments for 
so many years, serving as Trustee since 1889, acquainted 
with scores of the teachers and their work, knowing inti- 
mately hundreds of the students and their homes, it would 
be natural for me today, were I to allow myself to do so, 
to speak the names of many of those, teachers and students 
alike, whose memory is a benediction, but time does not per- 
mit me to do so. However, I cannot forbear the assertion 
that the faithfulness, the dutifulness and the generosity of 
those who have through the years constituted the Boards 
of Trust of this institution have been to me one of the 
greatest inspirations of my life. They have carried details, 
contributed time and poured out gifts in a splendidly help- 
ful way. They have answered to the leadership of the Uni- 
versity with sustained fidelity and bountifulness. Again 
and again they have not been able to see far into the years ; 
it appeared almost as though they faced a blind alley. But 
they have held in their hearts the assurance that the insti- 
tution would eventually have a large and beneficent future, 
and they have believed that successors to themselves would 
be raised up who would continue and would develop its 
life. 

There is one name, however, that should be mentioned if 
any attempt is made to state in few words the history of this 
institution — the name of Mrs. Charles B. Farwell. She is 
indeed the mother of the College, and the foster mother of 
the Academy and Ferry Hall. It was she who, herself an 
educated New England woman, craved liberal education for 
the youth of the Northwest. She desired that women as well 
as men should have the privileges of such education. As 
yet, in 1875, college co-education was almost untried in 
the United States. She inspired the starting of the College ; 
she saw that co-education became one of its features; she 



watched over the Academy, and Ferry Hall, and she set in 
movement the methods and the means whereby the institu- 
tion as a whole was operated and its expenses met. The 
University as such would not have been begun without her 
compulsion, nor would it have continued without her sup- 
port, and the support she obtained in her home and else- 
where for it. Her name should be held in everlasting re- 
membrance in the annals of Lake Forest University. 

Nor can I omit to speak of the sacrifice and the sacri- 
fices that have entered into the labors incident to the life 
of this institution. It has been my high privilege to know 
the motives that in so many instances have lain back in the 
hearts of those charged with the administration of the 
Academy, Ferry Hall and the College — pure, noble, disin- 
terested motives. To know, too, the ideals that have filled 
the spirit of the teaching staffs — ideals of consecration, 
hopefulness and devotion; to know also the cost at which 
these motives and these ideals have been sustained. One 
of the memories I love to cherish is the memory of the 
life-blood that has been put into the mortar that holds the 
stones of this University together — life-blood indeed costly 
to the individual, that was precious in the sight of God, 
and that speaks better things than any amount of silver 
or gold could speak of the purpose and the worth of these 
departments. 

And the result has been that during these years there 
has been capable instruction given here — instruction adapt- 
ed to the individual and to his place and age in world-his- 
tory. The men and women today laboring in every part of 
the United States and in every foreign land are a product 
of which we all may be sacredly proud. They are worth- 
while men and women ; they are contributors to the advance 
of humanity, and they are what they are largely by reason 
of the spirit that was wrought into them while they were 
here. 

The influence exerted by this institution on the im- 
mediate community has been markedly beneficial. At the 
beginning the community life centered largely in these edu- 
cational interests. With the increase of the population of 
the community and with the increase of all sorts of physi- 
cal relaxations, social amenities and material luxuries, these 



educational interests have not relatively held so prominent 
a position; but through all the years and today the pres- 
ence of these schools has been a steadying, balancing, sober- 
ing power. It has been a summons from intoxicating pleas- 
ure to thoughtfulness. Here are these young people, the 
hope of the world, being prepared for real life! What a 
responsibility their presence involves! Here are these 
teachers, with limited salaries, but with rich culture 
and lofty characters. Immediately material wealth is 
seen to be not the all nor the best of existence; nor is 
gaiety the end of being, nor is social recognition the supreme 
reward. Plain living and high thinking have helped to 
stabilize this place, and have counteracted the tendencies 
to dizziness and disaster, which always imperil the upper 
altitudes of social and financial success. These institutions 
have paid back more to this community than they have re- 
ceived from it, and paid back in better coin. They have 
been the conservators of money, not its dissipators. Not 
one family has lost by the benefactions it has made, but 
the rather has enriched itself through these gifts. These 
educational institutions gave rise to the existence of this 
place; they are the sources of all its attractiveness for 
residence. In a word they are the "mother" of every safe 
and beautiful feature, and to such a mother recognition and 
gratitude and appreciation well become each and every per- 
son who dwells here. 

The present status of this institution is admirable. It 
is to be congratulated on its Board of Trust, most vigorously 
constituted; on its Alumni constituency from each Depart- 
ment, with their loyal allegiance ; on the record of its schol- 
arly work, so extensively recognized ; on the spirit and pur- 
pose of its newly-elected President; and on the general 
feeling of safety and promise that fills this hour. 

We dare to look forward to the future courageously. 
Some lessons, I trust, have been well learned. One is that 
high-spirited teaching, by instructors of reverential person- 
al integrity, is an essential to the holding of students and 
to the developing of the departments. In comparatively 
small confines such as these are, the spirit as well as the 
work of every instructor is speedily recognized. Beyond 
being possessors of effective force and of intelligent ap- 



: rehension, the men and women of the Faculties must be 
splendidly good. Character and ability, each and both, 
L,re requisite to constructive and parmanent effort. 

Another lesson is safe financing. Many a man can man- 
age the business affairs of his own particular industry, 
who cannot manage the business affairs of a complex edu- 
cational institution. More wit is requisite in creating ex- 
penses and providing for them in an instituton such as 
this than in a factory or in a commercial house because of 
the difficulty of figuring out and providing for the returns 
on outlay. But wise financing is an absolute requisite in 
this special community in order to secure and preserve 
the material cooperation of the community. Such safe 
financing is a possibility ; besides, as a necessity it is won- 
derfully stirring, stimulating and healthy. Given six 
successive years of such financing and gifts will begin to 
pour in upon this Institution, and will continue to flow to it. 

Then, there is a third requisite, namely, wise administra- 
tion. The most remarkable feature in the life of this insti- 
tution, in my judgment, has been the response of the 
Trustees to leadership. In all the years of its history, it has 
been its leadership that has determined its condition. The 
one person for whom special prayer should be offered today 
and always is the President of this institution. He is the 
man who must find the way, educationally and financially 
alike, must find the best way, the safe way, the advancing 
way, and must guide and lead his Trustees and his teachers 
into that way. There may be institutions where presidents 
are mere figure heads, mannikins, worked by Trustees and 
faculties, but this is not one of such. The welfare of this 
College lies preeminently on its President, and I rejoice to 
say that the new President knows and accepts this fact. As 
goes the President, so goes Lake Forest. 

One additional feature is requisite — the religious at- 
mosphere. It seems odd to call a religious atmosphere a 
business asset, but such it is here; it is dollars and cents, 
it is a balance-sheet to the credit. That atmosphere need not 
be exclusive. It may and should recognize every expression 
of religious life whatever its name, so long as it tends to 
produce Christlikeness. Nor need it be an incubus ; it may 
and should be like the coming in of light, like wings to the 



bird, like a song of inspiration and cheer. It should be as 
natural as walking and eating, as teaching and playing; 
but it should be present. Teachers should fill their lungs and 
hearts and minds with it. Pupils should test their lives 
and the hopes of the world by it. It is the most beautiful 
and helpful and joyous of all possible experiences, and every 
one should be given opportunity to delight himself in it. 
Perpetuate such an atmosphere, and you perpetuate Lake 
Forest. Perpetuate such an atmosphere and the centuries 
will find Lake Forest a fountain head of blessings for all 
God's earth. 






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